In most countries, the only way you can punish politicians and civil servants for not doing a proper job is by not voting for them in the next elections, but in Bolivia, they have a thing called

The people of San Buenaventura, a small town in northern Bolivia, recently made good use of their constitutional right to social justice by putting their mayor, Javier Delgado, in stocks for an hour, to let him know that they are not satisfied with his service.

Photos of the disgraced mayor sitting on the ground with one leg trapped in the medieval restraining device while surrounded by angry townspeople have been doing the rounds on South-American social media and news sites since late February.

The Mayor Javier Delgado was supposed to inaugurate a bridge built with state and municipal funds, but when he got to the site, he was shocked to learn that the crowd waiting for him was not there to attend the event, but teach him a lesson.

Baying for blood

Without even bothering to explain what he was being punished for, they just grabbed Delgado and put him in wooden stocks.

“They didn’t even give me the opportunity to find out why they were submitting me to this punishment, but I did not put up resistance knowing that there was a risk of things escalating even further,” the mayor told La Razon.

“Later, they gave me the opportunity to explain and then they apologized to me, as they saw that they had been manipulated and misinformed by these people.”